Introduction

With this winter quarter coming to an end and my graduation in June arriving quickly I want to reflect on all that I have learned this past 10 weeks. Digital marketing has been one of my favorite classes that I have taken so far at Western Washington University. Part of it is from my professor Mark Stanton and the information and different learning opportunities he provided and the other part is how I have something to show for what I have learned this quarter.

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What I Have Learned In Digital Marketing:

This quarter I have learned about many different topics in digital marketing and I have become a T-shaped marketer. A T-shaped marketer is someone who has skills in many different marketing aspects. I have found content marketing to be the most interesting and comprehensive to me but I have also learned about many other parts that are important in digital marketing.

• Web Analytics: Web analytics is an important tool to see what you are creating and implementing is working and what is doing the best. It is important to analyze the data to optimize your digital marketing. KPIs such as website traffic, conversion rates, click-through rates, and engagement levels lead to understanding what is working and what needs to be improved.
• A/B Testing and CRO: A/B testing is a great way to further optimize and gives specific feedback on where improvements can be made. This testing can be used to see what changes will lead to the most amount of conversions.
• Search Engine Optimization: SEO is the way for digital marketers to increase the quality and quantity of traffic to your website, and increase exposure of the brand, organic search results, and sales. Understanding SEO is a cost-effective way to attract potential customers compared to paid search or other digital marketing techniques.
• Paid Search: Paid Search is a great way to get users to move down the marketing funnel and get them to convert to paying customers. This is a good option when it can help contribute towards the business goals and want to track and measure your efforts.
• Inbound and Content Marketing: Inbound and content marketing are important to digital marketers as it can help drive engagement by building relationships with users and solving their problems.
• Paid Social Media: Paid social media is a good idea to promote content that users are already enjoying as a way to get it to more people. It can be used to raise brand awareness, find new customers, promote different things, generate leads, and drive conversions.
• Organic Social Media: Organic social media is the best place to start when promoting on social media platforms. It is the free content that companies make and control and is a great way to show the brand's voice and values. Brands can use organic content to create and improve relationships with their users and find what they are interested in and need through social listening.
• Programmatic Advertising and Ad-Tech: These tools are perfect for real-time optimization, targeting specific audiences, and automating the purchasing and delivery resulting in data-driven insights for digital marketers to use.
• ECommerce: ECommerce is the process of buying and selling products online. It is important to show off the brand and values all across the e-commerce site so users can see the benefits and increase purchases.
• The Future: The digital world is constantly changing so it is important to always be looking to the future and where it might take the digital world. There are always new tools that are emerging like generative AI and as a digital marketer, I need to always understand and learn these new tools and how they can be used to help me.
• Digital Activism: There is a lot of power in understanding how digital marketing works and how to best use it for your goals. It is a great tool to stand up for what you believe in and can be used to prevent others who want to cause harm.

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